Book seller Dacia Hanson weathered a winter sales slump with a new addition to her shop and is predicting an enriching environment for Renton readers in the future.

Among the abundantly filled wooden bookcases and cozy seating of the Old Renton Book Exchange one can find the city’s littlest book dealer, Beauregard (Bo) Brown.

Doing little more than eating, sleeping and playing amongst the stacks of books, at five months Bo is the most alluring sales person.

“I think a lot of people come in just to see Bo sometimes,” said Hanson, his mother and owner of the shop.

He was born Nov. 2 and has been keeping his mother company in the store since December on a regular basis. He is known around town as he accompanies his mother on walks and to get coffee at Liberty Cafe downtown.

“From day one people watched me get bigger and bigger and bigger and then everyone knew when I wasn’t there the entire month of November that, oh I had my baby,” Hanson said.

Balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship has been difficult and complicated at times, Hanson said, but also rewarding and similar.

“In each practice you often feel like you can never do enough to support and grow your charge, whether it be shop or human,” she said. “That said, I have never found a pursuit more rewarding, challenging or unpredictable than either motherhood or entrepreneurship.”

In business for about a year with her husband, Zachary Brown, Hanson said that winter was not great for sales, but they are looking forward to summer and the foot traffic that comes with the many events in downtown Renton.

Hanson is hoping for increased sales and interest with the Renton Library’s move to Third Avenue at the current Big 5 Sporting Goods store location just blocks from her store. The move, she hopes, will cultivate a community of readers.

“I think that as a used bookstore being a neighbor to the library is never a bad thing,” she said. “Bottomline, you get readers in your neighborhood.”

Hanson is concerned about the book retail industry when asked to reflect on events such as Borders declaring bankruptcy in February.

“Without new bookstores like Borders and Barnes and Nobles, there can’t be used bookstores,” she said.

She isn’t afraid, however, of “e-readers” taking over the market and said that she thinks others want her to hate them but she doesn’t. She sees their purpose for things like travel.

“I don’t think the book is going the way of the dodo [bird] and that’s the idea that I’m insulted by,” she said. “I think that books have been around for thousands of years; they aren’t just going to fade off the planet because we have a Nook now.”

One of many things the Old Renton Book Exchange has going for it, at least for now, is baby appeal.

“I am tremendously fortunate to be able to bring him here everyday with me and I can’t imagine having a regular job where I would have to give him to somebody else all day, every day,” Hanson said.

The Old Renton Book Exchange is located at 227 Wells Ave. S. in downtown Renton.